Archive for April, 2010

Bonhoeffer :: Eric Metaxas

by Tim Schraeder on 04/30/2010 in Q with No comments
  • Eric only had 9 minutes to present on Bonhoffer, so he suggested you watch his entire presentation:
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a modern church father.
  • His book Life Together is the definitive text on Christian community
  • The Cost of Discipleship is another classic of the church
  • Bonhoeffer spoke about religionless Christianity.
  • Religionless Christianity  is what the Gospel means.
  • Adam & Eve tried to fool God and cover themselves with fig leaves… that’s religion.
  • What we need is the blood of Jesus to cover us… that’s the Gospel.
  • God is not fooled by our sophisticated fig leaves.
  • Mere religion without Jesus is not going to lead anybody to overcome evil, social injustice or the horrors of a broken world.
  • Jesus can.
  • At his place in history, he was confronted with a level of evil that none of us have experienced, Nazi Germany.
  • It forced him to see the dead churchianity around him.
  • Jesus is the only thing that can stand against sheer evil.
  • Faith is not about rules, it’s about a Person.
  • We cannot be Christians by following rules.
  • Rules are important, but if you think you can get to God or earn your way to heaven by doing things, you can’t.
  • According to the faith handed down by us, we need something much bigger than a set of rules, we need a person… God
  • We need to look to people to inspire us to show us how to live faith.
  • We need to understand what it means to be Christian in the world.
  • Bonhoeffer lived a life of such obedience to God.
  • Knowing good theology won’t cut it.
  • Our life is our theology.
  • God want us to integrate everything.
  • We can’t fool God.
  • We need to look at life where we see the Gospel overcome the evil of our day.
  • He’s a church father for a postmodern age.
  • Read more by checking our Eric’s book, Bonhoeffer.

The Third Post :: Skye Jethani

by Tim Schraeder on 04/30/2010 in Q with No comments
  • Phyllis Tickle highlighted the fact that it’s possible for the entire global church to be one in prayer through the fixed hour of prayer.
  • With advances in technology, we have the capacity as the church to do more than pray together.
  • We have the capacity to be on mission together through advances in media and technology.
  • TheThirdPost will rally the church to see the world through the Gospel.
  • We see the world through news aggregators [Druge Report, Huffington Post, FOX News, CNN]
  • The news aggregators are polarizing… right or left.
  • What if there is a third way of operating?
  • The Third Post offers another lens to see from sources around the world.
  • The Third Post will not be right or left but help people see world issues through the lens of Gospel.
  • We need to reimagine the world we see.
  • Jesus said you have eyes but you do not see.
  • The Third Post will be a rallying point for global church leaders to gather together and discuss.
  • It will give you resources to engage….Bible Studies, ebooks, direct connection to ministry.
  • The Third Post is in the process of gathering resources, contributors, and content and will launch in October at the Lausanne Gathering in Cape Town.
  • We live in a remarkable time, for the first time we can be one not just in Christ, but in vision, imagination and mission to this world.
  • Learn more by visiting TheThirdPost.com.

Engaging the Gay Community :: Andrew Marin

by Tim Schraeder on 04/30/2010 in Q with 8 Comments

Andrew Marin | The Marin Foundation
Andrew Marin is the President and Founder of The Marin Foundation (www.themarinfoundation.org) a non-profit that seeks to build bridges between the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and religious communities. Andrew has appeared on various national radio and TV programs, and his sermon Homophobia and Bridging from within the Evangelical Church—given on Capitol Hill the night before the Inauguration of President Barack Obama—is archived in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. He is the author of the award winning book Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community, blogs daily at www.loveisanorientation.com and lives in the Boystown neighborhood of Chicago with his wife.

Andrew opened in complete silence for the first 45 seconds of a 3-minute presentation. He then said the following:

I stand silent to give dignity to a moment many Christians take for granted.

There are only a few sacred moments in one’s life—one of them is when you know in your heart that you’ve been set apart to dare to be remarkable by doing nothing other than believing in a just and powerful God.

The last great Roman satirical poet, Juvenal, commented about power by saying:

“But who is to guard the guards themselves?”

I am standing in a room with 600 gatekeepers to our faith. 600 influencers. 600 people that stand amongst and above the rest.

Maybe you don’t feel as such in your own mind.

But the Christian hierarchy proves different.

Jesus said that: “wisdom will be proven right by her actions.”

Well, our actions have only proven that ‘wisdom’ must be an elite group of predominantly white upper class individuals who care about their “Christian brands.”

I don’t care about your Christian brand, and neither does the Lord.

God says to Isaiah:

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder.

The wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

You all are the best; you are all the brightest that our faith has. And yet where are your hearts with the gay community?

How have your tangible actions proven the Lord’s wisdom right?

Is the culture war it too political? Too divisive? Too scary? Too unknown to stop us from changing our medium of engagement with gays and lesbians.

In his famous speech apologizing to America after his sex scandal, Bill Clinton said:

“This has gone on too long, cost too much and hurt too many innocent people.”

Friends, I plead with you today that you stop being a gatekeeper and start acting like Jesus.

Much love.

[ via LoveisAnOrientation.com ]

Collaborating in Community :: Charles Lee

by Tim Schraeder on 04/30/2010 in Q with No comments
Charles Lee | Ideation Strategist, Networker and Compassionary
Charles is the founder of Ideation, a consultancy that specializes in branding, marketing, social media, and event development. He is also a founding member of JustOne, a NPO committed to addressing issues of poverty, orphans, and slavery. In addition, Charles leads New Hope, a faith community in the Los Angeles area, and is the creator of grassroots efforts including the Idea Camp and the Freeze Project. Charles regularly speaks around the country on topics such as creativity, innovation, leadership, social media, community development and compassionate justice.
  • Ideas are a dime a dozen in our day and age
  • Some are even on sale
  • The ability of an organization or individual to implement an idea is vital
  • What does it take to co/labor together?
  • Collaboration isn’t mutual agreement, but work.

Why don’t people collaborate well?

  • Many of us don’t have time.
  • It could be a lack of resources.
  • It could be fear that collaboration will lead to elements that are in the unknown.
  • The more you share your idea there’s a greater risk that implementation will take place.
  • It could be our insecurity.
  • Idea lovers aren’t the best implementers
  • As much as  you love ideas you must love implementation
  • There’s a need to focus on the 99% of perspiration.
  • Some of it is our own sense of pride and self-indulgence.

We NEED to Collaborate

  • For many collaboration is a nice option.
  • For others, there’s a deep need to collaborate.
  • Until you get to a point of need, collaboration won’t take place
  • We are all part of a body, each part needs each other.
  • Most people don’t feel the NEED to collaborate
  • To make it a central need in the life of your organization will change everything.
  • Collaboration is missional.
  • The call and desire of God are so much bigger than anything we could do alone.
  • We are Smarter then Me
  • The crowd is always smarter than one single person
  • Social media isn’t a platform to communicate more messages or to market it’s powerful when it is social to create collaboration.
  • The internet flattened the world.
  • If you openly share, the speed in which innovation takes place is exponential
  • Collaboration leads to creativity
  • You may be working on one idea but you can be inspired by a different concept.
  • As we continue to nurture unrelated ideas/concepts, connections start to take place unexpectedly and would have never happened and one day, something amazing can happen.
  • The beauty of human interaction is a wonderful thing to embrace.
  • We need intentionally spontaneous moments of creativity and relationship
  • Intentionally posture your life to connect with people
  • Architect environments where collaboration can take place
  • You don’t have to organize the interaction, let people connect
  • You have to work on it in your life and organization to make it happen

elements for co/laboration

transparency > >trust

  • Trust is built through transparency.

clarity >> direction

  • Be clear up front.
  • Wisdom comes in motion

community >>accountability

  • Community allows for accountability for your concepts.

openness >> formation

  • You have to be willing to open to what God may form in the future

listening >> strategy

  • Allow the listening of another soul in their context.
  • Let your concepts form within the voices and contexts of people on the streets, not in board rooms

intentionality >> ethos

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” –  Henry Ford

← Older Entries